Genius #18 - Jun '25
The Lijadu Sisters; new music from billy woods, mclusky, Stereolab, Water Damage, caroline; Uzi's Sleep Asylum, Deerhoof's Offend Maggie, MIDI basics
We are so back, it is so hot & the tunes are good. Every Genius Dot Com feels like something that I will not complete until it's done and this one is no different! The music recs? They're good. Lots of lowercase-only artists and 2 reunion albums that are actually good and worth listening to. The MIDI discussion below? it's kind of convoluted. But maybe useful to you, the budding electronic producer.
I'm not gonna mince it, things are looking really bad on planet earth. I hold onto tunes like a fucking life raft. It's dire. Let's listen to music together?
- Capitalism - The Lijadu Sisters
- Album Recs - Six Pack + Upcoming Recs
- Replay - Deerhoof's Offend Maggie
- Garbage Corner - MIDI Basics
- Upcoming Shows
Capitalism
Jeremy Cherfas
I'm so stoked about the Numero Group reissuing all of the Lijadu Sisters' stuff. The Lijadus are (/were, RIP Kehinde Lijadu) Nigerian twin sisters who wrote beautiful, funky afrobeat/rock songs in the 70s with a radical message of social justice, against the corruption of the 70s Nigerian government. They have songs in English as well as in Yoruba – the sisters perfectly mirror each other through close harmony, singing so free. People who knew them at the time said they spoke at the same time and finished each other's sentences. In the 80s, the sisters relocated to Brooklyn and were almost never seen again, reuniting to play music just once.
Absolutely worth a listen if you're unfamiliar with their work. I'm hopeful that the reissues will bring renewed interest in the Western world. Just a quick shoutout to Numero Group, who have some of the best releases and reissues in the game. Anyways, I bought a t-shirt! I want to rep!
Album Recommendations
A beautiful six pack: 5 new releases from May and 1 oldie
billy woods - Golliwog (Backwoodz, May '25)
Real American Horror Stories
Death Magpie
Using horror movie tropes to describe modern living is nothing new, but in the hands of billy woods, the mundane terrors of our regular lives are rendered in full sickening color: Landlords pressure you to move out of the building so they can jack up the rent, Cecil Rhodes stalks your house like a spider, $12B USD in drones hovers over the Gaza strip, you find yourself among the scavengers picking through a pile of your evicted neighbor's belongings. Been a min since woods released an album with more than one producer – the dark and spooky cohesion between these beats either speaks to his ability to curate, or the current mindset among hip hop producers. Swirling horror strings, a woman sobbing, sparse fog. Maybe not a joy to throw on, but given the current circumstances, it feels appropriate.
mclusky - the world is still here and so are we (Ipecac, May '25)
aggro noise rock with a sense of humor
woutar
The kings return!! If you aren't already intimately familiar with their sophomore record mclusky do dallas, that's proof that we were not friends in the year 2008 when I was at my most annoying about this band. The new record sits in a kind of cool spot, in between Do Dallas, the follow-up (The Difference Between Me And You Is That I'm Not On Fire), and the first Future Of The Left album (Falko and drummer Jack Egglestone's next band after the breakup). The songs were written collaboratively among the Ship Of Theseus trio: gigantic guitar sound, gnarly fuzz bass, simple songs with bizarre lyrics (including a track bemoaning that Nigel Farage didn't die in a plane crash in 2010). I don't really know where this album stacks up with their previous work — reunion albums are hard to gauge. At a certain point you just gotta say “hey you know “The Battle Of Los Angelsea” is a nice addition to the catalog of mclusky songs.”
Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film (Warp, May '25)
Luxury space communism
Jeremy Cherfas
TWO reunion albums in one GDC? I'm losing my edge. Ok, but for real – I didn't really think that Stereolab had the juice anymore! Stereolab's first album in 15 years has all the hallmarks of their early-90s releases: lounge sophistication, kraut rock psychic waves, Marxist/Situationist lyrics – actual bite, actual ferocity amidst the warm horns (great addition) and light synths. The songs are playful, full of little auto-wah guitars, and feel at once like a very sophisticated follow-up and also a nice return to the biting menace of their earlier works. Similar to above, I don't know where this one ranks among the band’s legendary discography (Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots & Loops remain my favorites), but it truly warms the cockles of my heart to listen to a song like "Melodie Is A Wound" and know that Stereolab is still out here making exciting hits. I cooked chickpeas alone while rocking out to this — I danced around my kitchen like a divorcee who lost everything but the prized record collection.
Water Damage - Instruments (12XU, May '25)
Droning psych-rock for the summer
ledra333
About halfway into the first song (yeah, about 10min deep!) I knew I was going to be flipping this to GDC. Droning psych rock that never hits a gait faster than a saunter and only occasionally takes a breath before returning into a densely packed ocean of sound. You want to hear six people smash on the same chord for 20min? Yes! You do! This is the "sound of the summer!"Densely packed humid heat compressed into four 20-min jams. One song features David Grubbs from Gastr Del Sol. PLUS you gotta respect Water Damage's commitment to Fugazi references (their first albums being called "Repeater" and "2 Songs"). Dive into it.
Uzi - Sleep Asylum (Homestead, 1986)
Fierce and menacing post-punk
This thing ain't on the streaming services, Daniel Ek is afraid if too many people heard it they would learn about his contributions to war crimes. A crushing wall of jagged guitars, a dead and well-mixed drum sound, and chorus-bass is punctuated only by howled and mewled minor key vocals from Thalia Zedek & occasional samples. Super melodic, the gripping songwriting is both moody & vicious. Six songs fly by in 22min, I found myself reaching back to throw it on a second, then third, then fourth time. The centerpiece is the 7min burner "Collections" which has big synth trumpets and cool backwards drums/Mission Of Burma trickery. So cool. The lyrics? Oh buddy. The chorus to that track is "would you let me inside your house? / Do you want to push me inside out? Someone should / someone should / someone should."
caroline - caroline 2 (4AD, May '25)
Left-field chamber pop from the London octet
yeahf
This album hits on a variant of style that I've been circling around a lot lately (and the band's debut does as well): symbiotic mixes of plaintive hyperrealistic analog recording and obvious digital artifact. The sound of the creaking floorboard of the room where the band is recording against the bright autotuned vocals; the chiming guitars playing out of time with each other and suddenly a drum kit from another room joins the conversation. Ignoring the sound, there's the writing: what a mass of yearning and ache! Real softboy hours, who up? Me!! I'm up!! This record is a great listen – good use of negative space around it as part of the music – there's the real pop songs that really feature Caroline Polachek, but also there's the bristling strings and the breath coming from the saxophone, the subtle heartbeat of a kickdrum. Soft sounds, but cut out in a way where you can hear the jagged seams.
Upcoming July albums:
- Wendy Eisenberg's delightfully strange rock trio Editrix is releasing The Big E on Joyful Noise recordings on 7/25. I saw them open for Deerhoof a couple years ago & it fit well
- Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer are back again for more viola/modular ambient & they brought along some of their cool LA jazz friends like Jeff Parker and Josh Johnson. Different Rooms is out on 7/8 via Int'l Anthem.
- Philly hip hop producer DJ Haram is releasing her debut solo record of hard hitting beats inspired by Arabic music and harsh noise. Let's fucking go. Features from bbymutha, Moor Mother, and El Kontessa. Beside Myself is out on Hyperdub on 7/18
- Forth Wanderers are (kinda) back!! At least they have their first new record in 7 years, even if this might be a final statement. Whatever! Orchestrated sugary indie rock is back on the menu! The Longer This Goes On is out on Sub Pop on 7/18
Replay: Deerhoof - Offend Maggie (Kill Rock Stars, 2008)
Can you believe that the members of this band found each other in San Francisco? None of them are even from there! I guess that's probably still true for most musicians living in SF, but this isn't the place for that kind of analysis. Hate to see myself become a "they couldn't do that today because of woke," but I truly think that Deerhoof couldn't have happened at any other moment in time. How lucky are we? Sure, maybe I'd rather live at at time without microplastic brain deposits, but at least there's these tunes.
husky26
When this album came out, I didn't know who Deerhoof were. I was 17 and the way people talked about them made me think they were an extreme metal band or a harsh noise band. I remember someone saying this album was "scary." I was 17! I downloaded it and didn't listen.
I remember a few years later deciding I was going to give the band a shot, I felt like I was "ready" to hear something "scary" – LOL. I was astounded to hear funky rock; loopy guitar heroics, Satomi Matsuzaki's bilingual cooing, Greg Saunier's loud as fuck drum kit. This is music that is bright & chiming and chirping, riffs don't chug they peel out like a getaway car. Sure there's a ton of tension here – at times the songs feel dangerous and like they're going to unravel.. but this is just a version of pop music that speaks to me. It's fizzing with life.
husky26
I don't know what the best album to start with for Deerhoof is — there 19 others to choose from — but Offend Maggie is a solid pick for the classic rock guitar-head who wants to hear Looney Tunes technicolor with the saturation cranked. Matsuzaki and Saunier have been on every album, but this is the first to feature the classic line up with twin midwestern guitarists Ed Rodriguez and John Dietrich, who are psychically linked to play interlacing guitar lines together. AND this some has some of their best songs: "Jagged Fruit" is an all-timer experimental rock song where the chords shift through more and more tension before being relieved just slightly on each chorus, "My Purple Past" is what would happen if "bring back the riff but slower" was the basis for a whole song, "Eagaru Guru" ratchets tension until it boils over into a harmonized guitar solo that boils itself back into the soup it came from. Come ON.
husky26
Overall, this is mostly just a pitch to listen to Deerhoof, one of those special bands that don't sound like anyone else. Intricate guitar lines that whip around each other between muscular bass stabs, zany songwriting and lyrics, "jazz." It's just the right mix of sweet, sour, spicy. The album ends with the short and sweet acoustic "Don't Get Born" where harmonies between Saunier and Matsuzaki sing ther song to life thru Beach Boys changes. The song itself sings: "30 seconds I will be alive / La-la-la" and then ends with "five more seconds I will be alive" before ending on a soaring note. Glad that it had gotten born!
Garbage Corner - MIDI Basics
Baltimore had a guitar pedal showcase at the end of June & I have been thinking a lot about what makes a guitar pedal "new" or "exciting" to me. I've got an extensive collection, which started when I was a kid & really exploded when I was like 25 and started earning Real People Money. But, I've only purchased one guitar pedal in the past 3 years – I'm just not excited by what I'm seeing out there... rehashed circuits, digital effects based on simple DSP platforms like Daisy, etc.
The 2 things that I find is the most exciting about a guitar pedal right now: novel analog circuitry that creates a sound that isn't heard in other pedals (Vongon Paragraphs, Fairfield Circuitry), OR MIDI-addressable parameters. Let's talk about MIDI. This will be a 2-parter!! I will write more next month about guitar pedals.
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) has been around since the 80s, it's a kind of messy control system, but it's basically the method by which instruments can talk to each other. If it's 1983 and you're in the band New Order writing "Blue Monday" then you had to use some clunky systems to get all of the drum machines to line up with the bass arpeggios. In 1983, the new MIDI system was unveiled and it's still the dominant way to communicate music information between instruments.
IF you are interested in making electronic music using hardware synths, understanding how to connect these devices together can be a big barrier and it's not always so clear.
MIDI can be transmitted between synthesizers, keyboards, computers, drum machines, controllers, etc. The information that can be sent includes note info (pitch, velocity, aftertouch), tempo/transport (clock/BPM, play/stop, timestamp info), presets ("Program Change"), and parameters ("Control Change").
MIDI protocol allows for up to 16 channels in a single chain of instruments, if you set your primary controller to send info to Channel 1, your synth also has to be set to be on Channel 1. If you have 2-3 devices, you need to chain them together. If you have Ableton connected to a synth that has a MIDI Thru port, you can go: Ableton (via USB-to-MIDI or your Audio Interface might have a MIDI-Out jack) into your synth’s MIDI-In, then run a MIDI cable from your synth's MIDI-Thru port into your drum machine and it will make one chain of the whole system. Your synth might be Channel 1, and the drum machine might occupy Channels 2-8. When Ableton sends a note message, you have to select what channel to send: if you select Channel 1, it only affects your synth & the drum machine will ignore it. If you select Channel 3, then maybe your hi-hat will play and your synth will ignore the message as it passes through.
The more complicated your set-up, the more likely you will need a MIDI hub or MIDI-merge — these bricks have multiple Ins, Outs, and/or Thrus.
Similarly, there are CC and PC messages: You can use a sequencer to send PC information and jump between presets on your synth, or you can send CC information to your synth to change some parameter on its faceplate. You choose which MIDI CC you are addressing (ie CC #23) and then it's value (anywhere from 0-127). The MIDI guide has a lot of synths MIDI CC lists & what they affect. For instance, here is the Korg Minilogue.
If your controller has a bunch of knobs, you can map them to specific MIDI CCs that change the filter cutoff, or LFO depth, or Oscillator tuning, etc.
Ok that's probably enough MIDI primer – next month, I will talk about how guitar pedals use MIDI and go thru my guitar MIDI set-up.
Upcoming Shows
Baltimore
- 7/2 (Wed) Contact Mic Experimental Jam @ Wax Atlas
- 7/10 (Thu) CDSM, Mowder Oyal, SLOT @ Holy Frijoles
- 7/11 (Fri) Muscle Album Release w/ Sad Roach, Pearl, Julia Set @ Holy Frijoles
- 7/12 (Sat) Sinister Feeling, Narcan, Dogmatic, Corvo, Reason Why @ House Of Chiefs
- 7/22 (Tue) Fear Not Ourselves Alone @ The Depot
- 7/23 (Wed) Senza, Barrow, Distend, Genevieve @ Metro
- 7/24 (Thu) Little Wings, Small Sur, Cara Beth Satalino @ Current Space
- 7/28 (Mon) SUMAC, Chepang, Patrick Shiroishi @ Ottobar
DC
- 7/1 (Tue) Nate Wooley, Chris Corsano , Ches Smith @ Rhizome
- 7/6 (Sun) Thalia Zedek @ Black Cat
- 7/12 (Sat) Lifeguard @ Songbyrd
- 7/25 (Fri) Femi Kuti @ 9:30 Club
- 7/25 (Fri) Faraquet @ Black Cat
- 7/27 (Sun) Moor Mother & Sumac @ DC9
NYC
- 7/9 (Wed) Matana Roberts solo (Trans Rights fundraiser) @ The Stone
- 7/10 (Thu) Matana Roberts solo (Immigrant Rights fundraiser) @ The Stone
- 7/11 (Fri) Matana Roberts solo (Educational Freedom fundraiser) @ The Stone
- 7/11 (Fri) Summer Scum Fest @ TV Eye
- 7/11 (Fri) Mechasonic 4 (pyrotechnic brass band??) @ Chocolate Factory Theater
- 7/12 (Sat) Matana Roberts solo (Reproductive Justice fundraiser) @ The Stone
- 7/12 (Sat) Outline Fest: Jane Remover, Kassie Krut, etc. @ Knockdown Center
- 7/12 (Sat) Summer Scum Fest @ TV Eye
- 7/12 (Sat) Thin @ The Broadway
- 7/12 (Sat) Mechasonic 4 (pyrotechnic brass band??) @ Chocolate Factory Theater
- 7/13 (Sun) Oneida, Chaser @ TV Eye
- 7/14 (Mon) WHAIT (More Eaze/Wendy Eisenberg duo) @ Night Club 101
Future Shows
- 8/3 (Sun) Ted Leo @ Union Pool (NYC)
- 8/5 (Tue) Tim Berne @ Lowlands (NYC)
- 8/7 (Thu) Editrix, Landowner @ Rhizome (DC)
- 8/8 (Fri) Bonnie "Prince" Billy @ Pioneer Works (NYC)
- 8/9 (Sat) Uhlmann, Johnson, Wilkes @ Public Records (NYC)
- 8/9 (Sat) Editrix (album release), Landowner @ Union Pool (NYC)
- 8/12 (Tue) Tim Berne @ Lowlands (NYC)
- 8/14 (Thu) Meth Rats, Ousted @ Metro (Baltimore)
- 8/16 (Sat) Pretty Bitter (album release), Cuni, Rosslyn Station @ Black Cat (DC)
- 8/16 (Sat) Laraaji @ Ridgewood Presbyterian Church (NYC)
- 8/30 (Sat) Matmos @ Black Cat (DC)
- 9/11 (Thu) Nourished By Time @ Ottobar (Baltimore)
- 9/13 (Sat) Yeule @ Black Cat (DC)
- 9/13 (Sat) Richard Lloyd, Powerwasher @ Ottobar (Baltimore)
- 9/14 (Sun) Dummy @ Songbyrd (DC)
- 9/19 (Fri) billy woods @ Union Stage (DC)
- 9/23 (Tue) Mary Lattimore @ Songbyrd (DC)
- 9/24 (Wed) Tropical Fuck Storm, Infinity Knives @ Metro (Baltimore)
- 9/25 (Thu) Ginger Root @ Black Cat (DC)
- 9/26 (Fri) Ginger Root @ Black Cat (DC)
- 9/29 (Mon) Lightning Bolt @ Union Craft (Baltimore)
- 9/30 (Tue) Lightning Bolt @ Black Cat (DC)
- 10/9 (Thu) J Robbins Band plays Burning Airlines @ Metro (Baltimore)
- 10/14 (Tue) Guerilla Toss @ DC9 (DC)
- 10/24 (Fri) Conner O'Malley @ Baltimore Soundstage (Baltimore)
- 11/19 (Wed) Bar Italia @ Black Cat (DC)
- 11/21 (Fri) Wednesday @ 9:30 Club (DC)
- 12/5 (Fri) Model/Actriz @ Black Cat (DC)